Still rues Town’s missed chances

Mike Simmonds

Hatters boss John Still rued his side’s lack of a finishing touch as they lost 1-0 at home to Burton Albion on Saturday.

The hosts edged the clash against the League Two table-toppers, but missed presentable chances through Paul Benson, Elliot Lee, Scott Griffiths, Luke Guttridge and Mark Cullen.

“We’ve played well, had chances, haven’t won, but that’s football.”

John Still

Burton however scored with their only one real attempt on goal as Matty Palmer’s effort deflected past Elliot Justham with 10 minutes remaining.

Still said: “I thought we played really well, we had three great chances, they had one deflected shot, what can we do about that?

“Elliot’s had a good chance, Scott’s had a great chance, Gutts, if there’s one player you want the ball to fall to in the box in that area, because he’s two-footed, it’s him.

“We wanted to come out and attack and I think we did. I actually thought we ground them down as the movement for Scott’s (Griffiths) chance was a fantastic move.

“As a full back do we expect him to hit the target? Probably, but he’s a full back. We would expect Gutts to hit the target without a shadow of a doubt and we would have thought Cully could do a bit better too.

“Elliot at the back post, could he have done better? Maybe, he’s not the tallest so I wouldn’t want to over criticise that.

“We’ve played well, had chances, haven’t won, but that’s football.”

Although the result was Luton’s ninth defeat in 11 matches, leaving them three points away from the play-offs with a hugely inferior goal difference, Still had been impressed with his side’s display.

He continued: “I’m really pleased with how we played and disappointed not to have got something from the game.

“Of all of the games this season that’s up there with one of those I’m really pleased with how we’ve played.

“But if I look at the 90 minute game, playing a team that’s in good form and in good spirits, to limit them to very little, I was very pleased.”

Brewers boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink hailed his side’s professionalism as they moved to within one win of promotion, as he added: “Luton is fighting for their lives, they’re playing for this wonderful crowd who are going to be their 12th man.

“I think at stages we controlled the game, they had no chances, or maybe a 50/50 one. It was a tight game as it’s always going to be, and you know that we can score at any moment, especially when we have runners forward.

“The position that Matty was in, that’s the position we want him in, in front of goal, and shooting at goal. It was a professional performance and we needed to be professional, needed to be right, needed to be very disciplined and hard to beat and I think we were that. I’m very delighted with three points.”